1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to visceral anchors for connecting a suture to tissue, and more particularly relates to a device used to load visceral anchors structures into an introducer.
2. Technical Background
Perforations in bodily walls may be naturally occurring, or formed intentionally or unintentionally. In order to permanently close these perforations and allow the tissue to properly heal, numerous medical devices and methods have been developed employing sutures, adhesives, clips, staples and the like. One class of such devices is commonly referred to as tissue anchors, T-anchors or visceral anchors. Exemplary tissue anchors are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,123,914, the entire contents of which are incorporated by reference herein.
Tissue anchors typically include a crossbar or some kind of anchoring member connected to a suture. The anchoring member and suture may take many forms. Generally, the suture and anchoring member are housed within a hollow distal tip of a needle. The needle is commonly housed within a delivery catheter or sheath to facilitate delivery and deployment of the needle at a desired treatment site within a patient. Once the delivery catheter has been advanced to the treatment site, the needle is used to pierce tissue and deliver the anchoring member on one side of the tissue, thereby leaving the suture extending through the aperture created by the needle back to the other side of the tissue. In some procedures, upon deployment of the anchoring members, the sutures of one or more tissue anchors may be collected and connected together, such as through tying the sutures together.
Typically, the anchoring members are loaded into the needle by hand either during manufacturing or by a physician at the time of use, thereby exposing the operator to the sharp needle and potential infection in the event a contaminated needle is reloaded during use. Therefore, it has become apparent to the inventor that an improved method and device for loading anchoring members without exposing the operator to the sharp needle and potential infection is desirable.